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This invention relates to the field of information communications. In particular, the invention relates to low bandwidth network access to Internet based information.
Wireless communications provides one method for mobile users to communicate to a wired network. In particular, wireless communications allows consumers to receive and send information. Examples of such wireless networks include cellular phones, pager systems, and satellite systems. The wireless network systems can be broken into relatively high bandwidth and low bandwidth systems. High bandwidth systems are for example satellite systems. Lower bandwidth systems include cellular phones and mobile radio systems. Still lower bandwidth systems include pager networks and low bandwidth packet switched radio systems (e.g., the BellSouth Mobile Data Mobitex(trademark) system).
For users to access information on the Internet using wireless communications, the method in which they access the information is highly dependent on the type of wireless communications available to the user. For example on a high bandwidth network such as a wired network or a satellite system, usual techniques for browsing data on the Internet are adequate.
An important source of Internet based data is the data accessible through the World Wide Web (referred to as the Web). The following describes the usual techniques for Web browsing. A user selects a web site associated with a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The URL represents the address of the entry point to the web site (e.g., the home page for the web site). For example, the user may select a web site that supplies restaurant reviews. The user""s computer (the client) makes an HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) request to the web server hosting the web site. The client typically needs to make multiple HTTP requests of the web server. For example, to load the restaurant locator home page, multiple HTTP requests are needed to download all the graphics, frame content, etc. Next, the user will typically need to browse through a number of linked pages to get to the page from which a search for restaurants can be made. Even if the user is immediately presented with the desired page, a great deal of information has had to been downloaded from the web site (e.g., graphics, advertisements, etc.). This additional information makes for a visually rich browsing experience. The user fills in the information on this page and selects a search button. The client makes another series of HTTP requests of the web server. The web server supplies the client with the requested information in an HTML formatted web page. The web page typically includes links to more graphics and advertisements that need to be accessed by the client.
For low bandwidth networks this technique does not work well. Too much bandwidth is needed to download the images. Also, low bandwidth networks typically charge per byte transmitted and can be very expensive if large amounts of data are downloaded. Thus, low bandwidth networks are desirable to use for accessing information on the Web but only if the amount of data transferred over the network is small. Specifically for packet data networks, the cost of transmitting messages increases with the number of packets transmitted. The cost of transmitting multiple packet messages is therefore a formidable obstacle for packet data network customer use.
One area in which Web access is becoming more desirable is in handheld devices. Handheld devices are emerging as important computer devices. Handheld devices typically implement a relatively small, but important function set. Examples of such handheld devices are the PalmPilot(trademark) handheld device available from 3COM Corporation, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. Examples of the function set supported are address books, calendars, and task lists.
In the past, wireless communications with handheld devices have been performed using wireless modems, such as are available from Novatel Communications, Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, or wireless transceivers for dedicated wireless data access network. Essentially a wireless modem operates in the cellular phone network and supplies approximately 9600 baud bandwidth to the handheld device. This allows the user to access the web at a relatively low bandwidth.
An issue with using handheld devices to access the Web is related to their capabilities. Even if connected to a high bandwidth network, most handheld devices do not have the screen area or the processing power to display the graphics and large amounts of text in a typical web page. However, it is still desirable to support the browsing of information on the Web using handheld devices. It is further desirable that the handheld devices be able to use networks that have relatively low bandwidths.
Some of the methods by which previous systems addressed some of the issues described above are now described.
One method of reducing the amount of data transferred from the web site to the client is to cache the web site data locally on the client. For example, the Netscape Communicator(trademark) browser application caches web pages on the client. Each cached web page is associated with a URL. Thus, when the client requests a web page, the Netscape Communicator browser attempts to use previously cached web pages before downloading the pages from the web site. Another type of caching program is NetAttache(trademark), available from Tympany, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. The NetAttache program downloads all the web pages from a given web site. The web pages are all cached on the client. A NetAttache server runs locally on the client. A browser can then be used to browse through the local copy of the web pages. The problem caching is that the pages still need to be retrieved from the server before they can be reused and there can still be a significant number of connections made to the web server.
Alternatively, some programs are customized for accessing specific information from particular web sites. Examples of these programs are Java applets that reside on the client or are served to the client by a server. The applets can then be reused to access information from a web site. An example of a specialized program for accessing specific information is the RealVideo Player from Real Networks, Inc. A problem with these types of programs is that they are very specific to a particular type of content. For example, they do not use standard HTML (hypertext markup language) constructs. This means that web site developers cannot use standard web site development tools to create their sites.
Therefore what is desired is an improved system and method for handheld device to access Internet information over relative low bandwidth networks.
The following summarizes various embodiments of the invention.
One embodiment of the invention includes a system having a distributed web site. The web site is distributed between a client, a server and a web server. The client stores a set of predefined applications that correspond to a part of the web site. The applications include data formatted according to a first markup language. From the set of predefined applications, the client can generate queries. The server receives the queries and generates new, related queries. The new queries correspond to a second query protocol. The second query protocol is used by the web server. The web server generates responses to the new queries and sends these responses to the server. The responses are formatted according to a second markup language. These responses correspond to the second portion of the web site. The server then converts the responses into new responses that the client can use.
In some embodiments, the client includes a handheld computer that has wireless communications capabilities at least a part of the communications between the client and the server is done wirelessly.
In some embodiments, the client includes a browser application that interfaces with the applications in the set of applications. To execute an application in the set of applications, the browser application is also executed. The browser application is responsible for rendering the data in the first markup language, initiating queries, and rendering responses.
In some embodiments, the data in the applications correspond to a number of hyper-linked markup pages. At least some of the hyper-linked markup pages include data for generating the query. The hyper-linked markup pages correspond to a part of a web tree. Each of the applications can therefore correspond to a part of a corresponding web tree of a corresponding web site being served by a corresponding web server.
In some embodiments, the client includes additional applications. These additional applications can include data formatted according to the first markup language and/or they can be stand alone applications that otherwise interface with the browser application to generate queries.
In some embodiments, the second markup language is HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and the first markup language is a compressed version of at least part of HTML.
In some embodiments, the queries from the client to the server are sent according to a first protocol. The queries from the server to the web server are sent according to a second protocol. In some embodiments, the second protocol includes HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) and the first protocol corresponds to a compressed version of HTTP.
Although many details have been included in the description and the figures, the invention is defined by the scope of the claims. Only limitations found in those claims apply to the invention.